BOSTON–Just days before global climate talks begin in Poland, the COP presidency has announced its first corporate sponsor, Polish coal corporation Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW). JSW, a majority Polish state-owned corporation, is the European Union’s largest coking coal producer.
Please see the statement below from Sriram Madhusoodanan, deputy campaigns director at Corporate Accountability:
“The fact that the negotiations charged with solving the global climate crisis are being bankrolled by Big Coal is absolutely unacceptable. Big Polluter sponsors like JSW are not only able to use sponsorship to greenwash their images, but also sponsorship will likely buy them access to the talks themselves — a massive conflict of interest. It’s like a gun control policy meeting being paid for by the National Rifle Association. Or public health talks bankrolled by Big Tobacco.
Such sponsorship raises serious questions about what access and influence sponsorship buys and could risk calling into question the legitimacy of these talks before they even begin. Big Polluters have no place bankrolling or participating in the UN climate talks. Period.
It is precisely for this reason that a global movement has issued the People’s Demands and specifically called for governments to protect the talks from Big Polluter interference.”
